


days gone by

by WelcomeToTheBadlands



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst with a Happy Ending, Badass Rey, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Cuddling & Snuggling, Deaf Character, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Shy Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23315998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelcomeToTheBadlands/pseuds/WelcomeToTheBadlands
Summary: It's been two years since the apocalypse and Ben has been alone ever since it started. What happens when he meets Rey? A girl who's been separated from her group with a penchant for befriending everyone she meets?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 20
Kudos: 50





	1. a girl and her machete

**Author's Note:**

> another fic born out of the boredom of quarantine, also a short one

The day that the outbreak started was sunny, and there were kids playing outside. It was the kind of day where it was hard to imagine something bad ever happening. Two years later and it was sunny again and the air was clear, but Ben Solo had his guard up. He had learned that it was the days where everything looked almost serene were the days to look out for. Now, he stuck far enough from pathways close to the woods but never went in to the thick of the city either. He knew how thick the herds were in that part of the city, and he really didn’t want to risk it. Even if it had been two days since he had last eaten. Two days. _Okay, maybe he needed to go and look for something to eat._ He thought about it for a minute. Then scanned the line of buildings that were coming into his line of sight a few miles from where he was. They weren’t so close to the city that he would have to risk getting swarmed by a horde, so he told himself that was where he would go.

Back then, Ben considered himself in shape, but walking for so long without food would have rendered him out of shape and tired. Now, he was used to it. That sharp pang in his stomach that hunger brought forth was something that he ignored most of the time. It was hard to remember when he needed to eat. Took extra for him to remind himself that, because when he did, all he could think of was how hungry he was.

It was always the same.

He was closer now, and he thanked the gods that there was a general store near by that seemed just out of the way enough that it hadn’t been looted to hell and back. When Ben was at the doorstep of the general store, he stopped to get his breath, staring at the peeling paint and the sign that was slightly askew. He sighed, listening out for something that would tell him that there were dead inside. Or worse, people.

He guessed that today was lucky, because he didn’t hear anything at all. The door was still locked, something that you didn’t see very much these days. But the foundation was weak, so it was easy to knock the door down. The inside of the store had been picked through, but not very much. Which Ben was thankful for. “Thank fuck,”

He got out his backpack and unzipped it, grabbing a Pringles can that had gone unopened, a handful of protein bars, and around six cans of soup, and two cans of vegetables. He managed to find one can of fruit as well. That was the one he opened. Canned peaches. He hadn’t had that in years. He didn’t know how hungry he had been until he ate the whole can in about three minutes.

He had to tell himself not to eat anything else, grabbing on bag of sealed up beef jerky before putting that in his bag before zipping it up and getting back on the road. So far, this had been one of his luckier days. He wasn’t sure how long he was walking before he heard it. A crowd of the dead. It wasn’t quite loud enough to be a horde, but there was a lot of them still. He had gotten closer to the outcropping of a city, so he wasn’t surprised that they were close by.

Ben wasn’t sure what to do, should he go towards it? See if there was anyone else that needed his help? Or should he just keep going and pretend that he didn’t hear anything. Most days, he would just keep going. He had gotten used to hearing hordes nearby. You survived by ignoring and avoiding them when you can. But today, something in his gut told him that he needed to go towards it. That he needed to make sure that there was no one stuck in it that needed his help. So, he did. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, peering around the façade of an old library, he saw the beginnings of a crowd starting to form and backed into a corner, there was a girl with a machete.

He wasn’t sure when the last time he had seen an actual, living person was. It took him a minute to process everything before he thought that he should go help her. He had an axe with him, sharp enough to thin some of the crowd from the back, but from the looks of it, this girl was doing a good job by herself. Through all of the hacking and slashing, she had managed to thin it pretty decently. Ben ran in and started to kill the others when they weren’t paying attention, trying his best to draw some attention from the girl. He wasn’t sure how many times it took but after a few minutes, all the dead were actually gone.

Ben glanced up, about to say something, but what he got instead was the girl he had just helped wielding a machete. Looking like she was ready to kill if she had to. Her eyes were wider than a deer in headlights. “Please don’t kill me,” He said, “please don’t kill me. Not here to hurt you,”

“Head up,” She said, “weapon on the ground.” Ben dropped his axe and looked up at the girl.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” He said, his head more up than it was before. He met her eyes. “I promise.”

“Why’d you help?”

“’cuz,” He said, “Haven’t seen a living in person since this started.” With that, she lowered her weapon.

“Name?”

“Ben. You?”

“Rey,” She said.

“Why you out here all alone?”

“Got separated from my group. Horde attack.” She said. Ben got a better look at her now. She was wearing a heavy leather jacket and the arms were reinforced with duct tape. Smart. “You?”

“Alone, was just walkin’.” He said.

“Head up,” Rey told him, “Can’t read your lips otherwise.” That’s when Ben noticed it.

“Are you deaf?”

“Yes,” She said. For a second, Ben wondered how she had made it this far, but he didn’t bother asking that. He just wished that he had paid more attention in ASL in high school.

“You hungry? I have food,” That was when she lowered her weapon and nodded. It looked like she hadn’t eaten in a while. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He sighed and took off his pack, handing her the bag of jerky that he’d gotten awhile ago. She took it from him gratefully and tore open into the pack. “You need someone to walk with you? Maybe help you find your group?” She nodded, tearing into a piece of jerky and swallowing it faster than Ben thought humanly possible. She stuffed the rest in the pocket of her jacket and got out a small paper pad and pencil that looked like it had been used over a thousand times, writing something on it before handing it to Ben.

_Shelter. Follow me._

“You know a place for shelter,”

She nodded, putting the notepad in her other pocket. She gestured for Ben to follow her, and he guessed that he didn’t really have any other choice.


	2. four things

There are four things that Ben Solo learned about Rey as they walked along the road to whatever shelter that Rey hid out at whenever things got chaotic. The first thing was that she had a group. She had been separated from them when some bandits came through, and ever since then the horde had pushed her further and further away from them. The second thing was that Rey had been deaf since she was six years old. She had always been hard of hearing, but it got to the point where she couldn’t hear anything. The third thing was that she was really good at reading lips. She told him that she had foster parents that had refused to learn sign language before this, so she knew that and how to be vocal. The fourth thing was that Rey was overwhelmingly optimistic, which was something that Ben didn’t understand in the slightest.

They made it to a watch tower that was significantly high off the ground. Ben tapped Rey on the shoulder. “You go up there?” He said. She nodded. “It’s pretty high up,”

“Reinforced ladder.” She shrugged, and then started to climb up the ladder.

Ben followed her, shaking his head a little as he clambered up behind her. When he got up, he told himself that he wasn’t going to look back down. He wasn’t sure that his stomach could handle this. He hadn’t been this high up in a while. Rey opened the door and motioned for him to come inside with her.

When he got in, he was pretty sure that he had hit the jackpot. There was a table with a line of canned foods, some pillows, and some blankets. There were also two packs of plastic water bottles there, waiting to be drunk. Enough for two separate pallets to sleep in. “Here it is,” She turned towards him with a grin on her face.

“Wow,” He said, “this is actually stocked pretty well.”

“Did it myself,” She told him.

“Where did you find all this stuff?”

“Me and my group found it all, put it together.”

“Your group have a lot then?”

“Yeah.” She said. “We do. This isn’t even the half of it.” For a second, Ben thought about asking if she knew if her group was really alive or not. If he would be able to join. But he hadn’t seen people in so long and he doubted that her group would be as welcoming as she was. Especially if they had been screwed over too. She tossed him over a can of beans, and he caught it gratefully. “We can stay here for the night; it usually doesn’t get too cold. Head out in the morning, I can show you the way towards camp.”

“Thank you,” He said, “really.”

“You were the one that helped me out.” Rey said. The two of them sat in silence for a while, Ben eating a little more and Rey sitting in her corner with a blanket and pillow.

“Things get chaotic often?” She must’ve been zoned out because she raised an eyebrow when she realized that he had just said something. “I was just asking, if things get chaotic often?”

“Oh. No, not really.” She said. “Haven’t seen anyone for a while to be honest, at least not the people outside of our group.”

“Right,” He said. “Well. Hopefully your group is okay,”

“I’m sure they will be.”

__

_When the outbreak started, Rey had been lucky to be with her best friend. Rose was a kindergarten teacher, and Rey worked as a technician at a hospital. It had just so happened that Rose had sprained her ankle just hours before things started to crazy, and it might have been a death sentence but they both powered through it. Rey remembered being scared out of her mind. She couldn’t hear things—how would she be anything more than something that would slow Rose down? Rose had told her that there was no way that she was going to leave her. Then the military started going through the hospital and shooting people down. Rey and Rose hid in a closet._

_They made it out of there by Rey assisting Rose and Rose telling Rey which way to go. They had made about a thousand close calls before they had met Kaydel and Poe._

_Poe worked for DoorDash and knew just about every different route of the city possible. Kaydel was his best friend and a chef. Together the three of them made it out of the city. Rationed food and made it even further. Rey had learned pretty quick that she was good with a machete, when she killed her first walker, she didn’t even throw up. The way that most everyone else had._

_They had each other’s backs, became family because they had to._

__

Ben hadn’t slept so well since this thing started. But then again—he hadn’t had a pillow and blanket it a long while. When he got up, he stretched and almost forgot about everything. He felt so well rested. Rey was still asleep, so he stayed there for a while, just staring up at the ceiling and thinking about his had been the safest that he been in a while. Before this, he slept with one eye open or didn’t sleep at all. Wondered why he was still doing this. Why he hadn’t just quit.

How much difference a day could make. It didn’t take that much longer for Rey to wake up. She smiled when she saw him. “We should pack up.”

“Right,” He said. Honestly, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to move. “

“You hungry? Want breakfast?”

“I have some food in my bag,”

“Okay,” She shrugged and started packing up. Ben sat there for a minute before eating a little bit and following her move. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“It’s just—I haven’t had a place where I could really rest in a long time. You know?”

Rey glanced him up and down. “One more day here,” She said, “then we get moving. Okay?”

“Thank you,” He said. “Really. Thank you,”

__

Rey learned four more things about Ben that extra day that they spent up in the watch tower. The first thing was that he had been alone since before the outbreak had even started. His parents and him were estranged, and Ben worked up in the mountains, so he hadn’t even known about the outbreak at first. There wasn’t much news going out into the mountains. The second thing was that he was an introvert—he wasn’t very good at conversation, but he had been so lonely that he was glad to see Rey when he did. The third thing that Rey learned about Ben was that he was funny. He was good at making jokes. The fourth thing was that he had always wanted to learn things. He asked her if she could teach him some sign language. “It’d make sense if we’re going to be working together for a while.”

“You sure that you want that?”

“Yes,” He said, “Plus you told me that you like signing better.”

“Then I’ll teach you, on the road. Just the basics,” Ben thanked her profusely for that. They ate a little more and got on the road the next day. Rey was grateful that he was smart. He learned pretty quickly how to sign _On your left_ and _on your right_ as well as _this way._ She told him that was all she was going to teach him for the day because she didn’t want his brain to get worn out. They made camp that night and did shifts. Rey told him that it was two days to another shelter, closer to her group.

“Are you sure they’d let me in?”

“Yeah,” Rey said, “I trust you. They trust my judgement.” He nodded, feeling a little bit of hope. But also felt a spike of anxiety. What if they didn’t like him? What if they did something weird in the settlement that was actually crazy? “You’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it,”


	3. getting closer

Ben had forgotten how good it was to actually have someone there next to him. Even if they didn’t talk a lot. Rey taught him some more sign language, and that entertained him for a while. They packed up some supplies and got back on the road, the two of them keeping to the median. They each had a way that they would look out, when they were sweeping the horizon. Trying to see if there were walkers, or people, or another place to lay low close by. Rey had told him that the next safe house was about ten miles out, and then another twenty to get back to her settlement. Ben told her to lead the way. He was looking for other places to lay low just in case things went south. “They won’t go south.” Rey had told him. Part of him wanted to believe her, but things always went south. That was just the way the world worked now.

Ben wasn’t sure how long the two of them had been walking by now, but there was nothing out on the road like there was for a long time. Nothing. At some point, Rey passed him a bottle of water. He nodded in thanks and then the two of them kept walking. That’s what they had to do, keep walking, keep on going to survive. Frankly, Ben was tired. He was tired of always having to walk, of having to keep on going. But every time he felt like stopping, he looked at Rey, and she smiled at him and Ben had another reason to keep going.

Ben had a reason to keep going.

He had never had that before.

He had just been surviving the best that he could. “Hey,” Rey told him, “up there.” There was the safehouse, just where she told him that it would. He had never been this lucky in his life, but he was considering the fact that Rey might just be turning his luck around.

That had to be a good thing.

The safehouse was out of the way but easy enough to get into, and Rey barricaded the door before she took some of the supplies out of her pack. _Dinner._ She signed. It was relatively easy to learn more and more, the longer the two of them were together. “So, when we get back to your place.” Ben started, he wasn’t sure what he was about to say, he was just talking to talk, he hadn’t talked to someone in a while so now just being able to do that was therapeutic. “What’s going to happen?”

_We have a leader._ She signed slowly, making sure that Ben got every word.

“You have a leader, yeah.”

_She’ll talk to you._

“And? What will she ask?”

“Interview,” Rey shrugged, “just to make sure you’re good. I’ll vouch for you,” She stabbed a can of beans, peeling back the aluminum top like it was nothing and not even eating with her palm, just swallowing what she could before she had to chew and put the rest of the can down. Ben didn’t know why his heart fluttered a little when she did that.

And suddenly Ben’s anxiety was back again. “It’ll be okay,” Rey told him, “I know that you’re a good person. Enough said.”

Ben nodded, and that was the end of it. They spent the rest of the day in silence and then drifted off to sleep. Ben had never really allowed himself to stop like this before, and now that he did, he noticed that his body hurt a lot more than he had remembered it hurting before. Everything just ached in a way that he couldn’t really explain. But he was so tired that he ended up falling asleep anyways. Rey was the one that woke him up in the morning. She tapped him on the shoulder and then motioned for him to be quiet. He nodded and then followed her to window, peeking out. Walkers. There wasn’t an overwhelming amount yet, but it looked like there was a horde that was beginning to come through. “We need to move,” Ben mouthed.

Rey nodded and then held up a finger. He saw her go out the back door and then heard the sound of a machete swinging. A minute later she came back in with a headless walker. Ben knew what was about to happen. He wasn’t very thrilled about it. Apparently, neither was Rey. She sighed, cutting into its stomach with a grimace. “I already smell bad enough,” Ben muttered to himself as Rey pulled apart the corpse, covering herself in the walker’s guts.

She looked up at him expectantly and he took a step forward, reaching in as well. He’d done this plenty of times before. Each time he wished that he didn’t have to though. But at least he had someone to share in the misery with him. _Everything will be fine._ Ben had no idea how she seemed so self-assured of everything, but she did.

He could feel better knowing at least that he was doing this with someone who knew what they were doing.

Luckily, there weren’t any walkers around when they went out the back door. Ben and Rey had to walk slow, pretend that they were dead and amble on. Rey slowly grabbed Ben’s hands, their fingers intertwining together. The two of them followed the heard, edging towards the outside. Ben could feel his heart beating in his chest, because every once and a while a walker would get a little too close to Rey and he would get nervous. He never got nervous about the walkers around him though.

The hour that it took for them to get clear of the horde was the longest hour of his life, but when they were done Rey was still holding his hand. She glanced over at him. “You okay?”

He nodded and the two of them kept walking. “If we find a car, we’ll be there a lot quicker.”

She nodded in agreement. “If not, we can still make it but it’ll be right before sunset.”

“I’d rather not travel in the dark,”

_Right. Then we should find a car._

They kept walking before they hit another small town. The auto repair shop was one of the first on the precipice of the town. Its doors rusted and old, dented from walkers coming by and slamming their bodies against it, but it was padded down and locked shut. Rey went for it almost immediately. He tapped her on the shoulder. “Wait,” He said, he went in front of her and went to the lock. “Just back me up.” Rey nodded and gripped the handle of her machete and waited, just like Ben instructed. It only took a few hits with one of the full cans from his pack to break the old lock open, and once it did the door rolled open with a loud clanging noise.

If there weren’t walkers around, they would be coming soon because of that noise. They waited there before two walkers came, Rey didn’t take any time and slashing and hacking away, and then the coast was clear. Ben went in first, with Rey following up behind him. There wasn’t a car there, but there was a motorbike. Rey looked especially gleeful when she saw that. _Do you know how to ride?_ She nodded.

_You trust me?_

He had no choice but to. “Yeah, I trust you.”


	4. beginning

Rey was a lot better at riding a motorcycle than Ben thought she would be. He was glad to be proven wrong in this instance, though. The alternative would have been dying in a motorcycle accident and his body being walker food. Instead, they made it a pretty fair distance before having to abandon the motorcycle and shack up for the night.  _ We’re getting close.  _ Rey told him.  _ If the motorcycle hadn’t broken down we would’ve been there by now.  _

_ It’s okay.  _ Ben has learned to sign better by this point.  _ We’ll get there eventually.  _ Rey smiled, and Ben felt something tug in his chest. He decided not to worry about it. 

Rey and Ben stay up for another hour or so.  _ I can’t wait for you to meet my friends,  _ she signed. She was smiling so wide. Ben almost did the same. He still couldn’t shake this anxiety about meeting his friends. What if they didn’t like him? What if he didn’t fit in and he was forced to leave? Only to be alone again. 

_ Something’s wrong,  _ Rey signed,  _ what is it?  _

“Nothing,” Ben told her, “it’s stupid.” Rey gave him a look, she was going to say that the only thing that was stupid was the fact that he wasn’t telling her what’s wrong. Ben was still for a moment before he decided to say something. 

_ What happens if your friends don’t like me?  _

_ They will,  _ Rey signed. 

_ Are you so sure about that?  _

_ I like you. Why wouldn’t they like you?  _

Ben knew that she had a point, but he still couldn’t get over the anxiety in his head. Rey snapped and then signed,  _ It will be fine, Ben. I’m serious, It’s not stupid to feel anxious, but you’re going to be fine.  _ They talked a little more. Ben telling her about how long he had been by himself more. How it would be his first time in a while being around more than one person. 

Rey told him that she would make sure that she was by his side the entire time. That was reassuring enough for Ben’s anxiety to subside just ever so slightly. The thing that helped the most was Rey moving closer to him and signing,  _ Can I hug you?  _

That was something that he hadn’t expected from her. He swallowed, not really sure what to say. It had been so long since he’d been touched by someone else in such a way that he was kind of scared to find out what if felt like again. He still nodded though, and Rey moved in for a hug. Ben swallowed, embracing Rey slowly as she settled into him. 

He wasn’t really sure how to describe it. 

How to describe Rey. All he could really do was just hold her in his arms and not let go, because this was the most that he had been touched by someone in a long time and he didn’t want it to end. Rey was, of course, really good at giving hugs to people. 

Ben wasn’t just saying that because of how long it had been since it had been since someone had hugged him, she was genuinely great at hugging. 

It lasted a lot longer than he remembered a hug lasting though, and tears stung his eyes. Rey only tightened her grip on him for a minute before pulling back. She gave him a look of concern before using her sleeve to wipe at his tears. “Thank you,” He said, “for being so kind to me.” Rey just gave him a smile and moved her sleeping bag closer to his, telling him that they should get some rest. 

That night, he actually did. 

__

The morning came and Rey practically sprang out of her bag when she woke up, Ben knew that she was excited, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit excited for her.  _ We can walk the rest of the way and make it there by lunch.  _ She told him. Ben nodded. He was used to walking, but he couldn’t help but be excited at the prospect of having a break from having to move from one place to another, never having a sense of permanency about him. 

Rey grabbed his hand and they started walking. She didn’t let go of his hand the entire time that they walked. 

She was right that they reached the gate by lunchtime. The sun was high enough for it to be about noon by the time they got to a large community gate. There was a tower on either side and people looking down at them. Birds were chirping and Ben could just faintly hear the sound of laughter inside. The sounds of children laughing. 

“It’s Rey!” Someone shouted.

“It’s Rey? Oh my god!” The gates were immediately opened and the first person to run through the doors was a blonde woman with her hair done up in a ponytail. Rey embraced her with a smile and the two of them held each other for a minute before they started signing at each other rapid-fire, a lot faster than Ben was able to understand. 

“Rey!” She was met by two other women, and two men, all of them giving her hugs. Ben just stood there awkwardly as he watched this happy reunion. 

“Oh my god, we were looking for you everywhere and we couldn’t find you.” 

_ I was scared that I lost you guys.  _ Rey signed. 

“I’m sorry,” The blonde woman said, and then she turned to the others, “So Rey here says that—” She turned to Ben, “--Ben?” 

“Yep,” 

“Cool, I’m Kaydel. Come over here, we don’t bite.” Ben got a little bit closer, but not much. “Anyways, Rey said that Ben saved her life.” 

“Really?” One of the men said, “well then, thank you for that.” He stepped forward and outstretched his hand. “I’m Poe,” 

“Ben,” Ben had never been really good at introductions in his life. Still, he cringed at himself as he shook his hand, and then was introduced to Poe’s boyfriend, Hux. 

“Thank you, really. For helping her.” 

_ We should get inside.  _ Rey signed. One of the other women agreed and they all went inside the gate.” Poe started telling Ben about how they just had to ask him a couple of questions, and Ben got to see the community more as he walked inside. There were houses. Whole houses, and a beautiful garden filled with crops that they used to eat. 

Ben was pretty sure that there was a whole town square too. Rey squeezed his hand and then let go’,  _ You got this.  _ She signed and then gave him a big thumbs up. 

_ I’ll see you later.  _ Ben signed back. 

__

Rey was waiting for Ben when he got out, he was smiling and talking to Poe and Djin, the leader. When his eyes landed on Rey his expression changed a little, he got more relaxed but he didn’t stop smiling. He came up to her and she signed,  _ How did it go?  _

_ It went well,  _ Ben told her. 

_ Good.  _

_ You didn’t tell me that they had houses.  _

_ Yes, we do, with running water from five am to seven pm.  _

_ Running water? Awesome.  _

  
Rey smiled, liking the happiness she saw in Ben’s eyes.  _ Come on,  _ she signed,  _ let’s go find you a home.  _


End file.
